White Tulip
White Tulip is the next episode after the episode Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver. Synopsis All of the passengers inside a subway train die of a mysterious cause, investigations leads the Fringe team to a brilliant astrophysicist. Meanwhile, Peter notices that Walter has been purposefully avoiding him. Full Recap Teaser Passengers are riding on a subway train when the lights begin to flicker. Suddenly, a man in the middle of the subway car. He looks around and then steps off the train as it comes to a halt at the station. A teenager panhandles him and then gets on board, and discovers that all of the passengers are dead. As the train pulls away, the teenager pounds on the window as the man walks away. Act I (still in progress)Walter is at home writing a letter to Peter explaining how he had snatched Peter from the alternate universe, in order to save young Peter's life. Peter calls but Walter refuses to pick up, listening to Peter's message via the answering machine. Peter said that Olivia called about the train incident and he'll pick Walter up in fifteen minutes. Once Peter finishes his message, Walter finishes his letter and seals it in an envelope addressed to his son, and then puts it in his pocket. As Peter and Olivia investigate the train, Peter comments to Olivia behind Walter's back that he thinks his father has been acting odd lately, and is outright avoiding Peter. Olivia confirms that Walter hasn't said anything, and says she hasn't noticed anything. Aboard the train, Walter examines the bodies and checks their underwear. He confirms that there was no sudden bladder release, but admits that he's not sure what happened. Walter suggest simultaneous heart failure but clearly isn't convinced. Olivia notices that of all the train cars, only the one with the dead passengers has no lights. Broyles comes in and tells Olivia what the teenager saw. Peter discovers that all the cell phones are dead, their batteries drained. As he goes outside, Walter realizes that he dropped Peter's envelope and hastily picks it up. He then admits that his initial theory was wrong and says they need to get some bodies back to the lab. They discover the man on the surveillance footage but nobody knows who he is. At the lab, Walter discovers that none of the victims struggled and apparently just died instantly Walter still appears distracted and Peter asks him what's going on, but his father insists everything is fine. They examine the victim's cell samples and discover that the mitochondria has ceased functioning upon the moment of death when it should have survived for hours. Every cell in the victims' body was drained of energy simultaneously. Broyles and Olivia begin checking surveillance cameras around the station. They follow the mystery man's trail as he entered a café, stayed for 45 minutes, and then disappeared. Olivia goes to the café and talks to the waitress, who confirms that the man comes in regularly and draws formulas on tips. She gives Olivia a credit card receipt for the man, signed Alistair Peck. Olivia leads a team to Peck's apartment. One room is covered with formulae and filled with electronic equipment. Walter confirms they are about subatomic particles. Peter finds a certificate confirming Peck teaches astrophysics at MIT. Walter believes that Peck has taken the Theory of Relativity and done something unique with it, something that takes massive amounts of energy. Peck comes home and asks what they're doing with his things, and appears to have no idea why they might be there. Upstairs, Olivia finds bloody surgical tools. She's called downstairs and they discover that Peck has massive surgical scars on his wrists. When Olivia says that he killed 12 innocent people, Peck claims that they're not permanently dead. However, he warns that others will be. When Olivia orders him to lie down, Peck says that he can stop them from ever getting the formula. Walter realizes that Peck has implanted a Faraday mesh under his skin, which allows him to create a temporal pocket around his body. Peck suddenly wavers and then disappears… and finds himself aboard the subway train. He gets out, walking past the teenager. This time he tells the teenager he's sorry he has to go through it all again. After Peck leaves, the teenager finds all of the corpses on the train. Act II Events are then replayed from the begging, except this time, Peck is identified through a fingerprint. His apartment is raided and he does not come home. Walter then realises that Peck has discovered how to travel through time. They track him through his phone and Walter tries to convince him to go to the other universe instead of through time in order to save his wife, who we learn has died in a car crash, but Peck does not listen. The events then play out again, but this time Peck is able to avoid the team by traveling back in time to the day of the crash. He finds his wife in her car, but they are then both killed in a car crash. Years later, Walter recieves a drawing of a white tuplip from Peck, who had instructed his former boss to send it to Walter at a set point in time after his death. Trivia General When the woman at MIT describes Dr. Peck's formulas as 'gobbledygook' Olivia says that she knows ' someone fluent in gobbledygook.' She is talking about Walter. Faraday refers to Daniel Faraday, the physicist in J.J. Abrahms "Lost Actually, "Faraday" refers to a scientist in our real world, Michael Faraday, who made significant discoveries in the fields of chemistry and electromagnetism in the 1800's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday The "Faraday mesh" referred to in the episode is based on a real device developed by Michael Faraday, also called a "Faraday cage." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage Production Notes Bloopers & Errors The first time the team investigates Peck's house, Olivia's hair changes between scenes. When seen from behind, her hair is in a bun with a fan of hair below it, in the next shot, her hair is tied up, with only a few strands loose below the bun. As evidenced by the first scene of the episode, when jumping back in time, Peck does not merely 'step inside' his own past (transporting his consciousness back in time). He enters a place where he previously had not been (sending his mind and body back). Therefore, the Peck Prime that went back to the date of his wife's crash, whether or not he arrived at the field before the original Peck arrived, was the mechanics-encased-in-flesh Peck that we already saw in the future. A person with all sorts of machinery underneath their flesh is something apt to be noticed by a Medical Examiner, following a crash. If a Medical Examiner had perused the remains and discovered the gears, electronics, and machinations, it is certainly something that Fringe Division would have been called in to consult on. This would have brought Peck to their attention sooner, thereby affecting future causality. Cultural References Literary Techniques Reception Observer Sighting After returning to the day of his fiance's car accident, Dr. Peck hurriedly runs down the street and into a man. Directly behind the man and going in the same direction as him, is The Observer. This is a false sighting. The Observer is seen immediately before the truck hits the car. He is standing in the doorway watching the accident. Cypher "SECRET" Category:Episodes Category:Season Two Episodes